Double-tracking for YouTube amp demos, have your say

saxxamafone said:
Some responses in this thread just confirms guitarists are idiots.

Rock on 🍻
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Hey dammit - I'm in that category too so I'll not be throwing stones from my glass house!

Let's just say we are a varied bunch of folks each with their own unique preferences, opinions and styles - as this thread has highlighted once again.
tonedover said:
I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE AMPS SOUND LIKE IN A FRIGGING ROOM...
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We all do! The problem as I see is that we can't agree on what that actually means. Without that defined, there's no possible solution.

Personally I've never head a roomy clip than actually represents the experience of being in the room. I know some think a phone clip does this, but for me it's not the case for a tonne of boring reasons.

Maybe if I was a headphone user I'd feel differently but think about it like this:
1. Close mic a cab, record it well using quality gear, i.e capture what's actually coming out of the cab.
2. Replay it through decent speakers in a room
3. Sound comes out of the speakers, interacts with the room, enters your earholes along with the direct signal - same as when you play the amp. If you like a roomy sound, turn it up and take 3 steps back!

I mean I like breaking rules and innovating but this approach has a pretty good track record - it's worked for most every great album in the last 60 years. Even that Bob Roll guy does it, or is it Rock?
 
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ZEN Amps said:
Hey dammit - I'm in that category too so I'll not be throwing stones from my glass house!

Let's just say we are a varied bunch of folks each with their own unique preferences, opinions and styles - as this thread has highlighted once again.

We all do! The problem as I see is that we can't agree on what that actually means. Without that defined, there's no possible solution.

Personally I've never head a roomy clip than actually represents the experience of being in the room. I know some think a phone clip does this, but for me it's not the case for a tonne of boring reasons.

Maybe if I was a headphone user I'd feel differently but think about it like this:
1. Close mic a cab, record it well using quality gear, i.e capture what's actually coming out of the cab.
2. Replay it through decent speakers in a room
3. Sound comes out of the speakers, interacts with the room, enters your earholes along with the direct signal - same as when you play the amp. If you like a roomy sound, turn it up and take 3 steps back!

I mean I like breaking rules and innovating but this approach has a pretty good track record - it's worked for most every great album in the last 60 years. Even that Bob Roll guy does it, or is it Rock?
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All i know is there are some really great produced channels out there with a ton of shoot out videos that are effectively worthless bc of a combo of doubling and aggressive post prod with heavily eq’d IRs.

What does this do? Well it makes oranges sound like dual recs. Not good.

So when i say “in the room” i mean raw tracks micd through a cab. If u cant reasonably do that, get a baseline IR that is widely used and consistently use the same one video to video. And dont tweak the eq and damping and all that crap u guys do before you publish bc u just cant help yourselves.

There is an ego at work for a lot of reviewers where its clear the presentation is more important than the actual review result itself.

Also - No one wanted an iphone recording so stop exaggerating like a child.
You wanted feedback, you got it. No sense in complaining some of us prefer something different than what you had in mind. Do whatever. Just be consistent.

Hopefully ur channel will be great and we can frequently cite ur demos in threads here and elsewhere as we talk.
 
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tonedover said:
Also - No one wanted an iphone recording so stop exaggerating like a child.
You wanted feedback, you got it. No sense in complaining some of us prefer something different than what you had in mind. Do whatever. Just be consistent.
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There isn't a complaint there? I'm just expressing opinions on amp stuff - no need to throw insults around.

Plenty of folks have suggested phone recordings over the span of this forum and to me via PM, no exaggeration involved my friend. My fault though that I'm conflating those conversations into this thread. I shouldn't have quoted your post then talked about phone recordings, I can see how that looks like I'm 'accusing' you of something here. I'm not. It's a subject that comes up a lot and I was commenting on it - that's it.

I'm a super reasonable guy and if you just point out I made an error or assumption, I'll retract or elaborate. Next time please give me that chance (y)

tonedover said:
Hopefully ur channel will be great and we can frequently cite ur demos in threads here and elsewhere as we talk.
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Thanks - the reason for threads like this is just that, we're attempting to make it as useful as possible. Not light entertainment for general players, or zaney yelling, just good amps played loud!
 
For me - first and foremost give me simple. What Kyle does for example. Simple mic, no processing, no doubletracking, no production. In fact further IMO, if you are demoing amps...keep it to one cab so that is at least a static reference point. Also if you like a boost, give us the amp with and without. I kinda scratch my head when guys dial up the gain and then boost it and that's all you get. At the least show the difference with and without which again I think Kyle does a good job of that.

I don't think phone recordings are bad per se but again, what kind of phone is it, where is it sitting in the room etc...

Nothing against those that do a production but there are times when I frankly cannot tell the difference in the amps based on that person's personal preference for EQ settings and any processing they are doing or IR's etc... Maybe just record the amps flat and the let the amp speak for itself as much as possible.

In a perfect world we could have all three - simple mic sample, production sample and phone mic lol.

Good luck and let us know so we can check it out.
 
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thegame said:
Well that settles it. Just for the complainers out there, Quadruple tracked takes for everyone. Even the verbal clip intros should be quad tracked, preferably sung in barbershop quartet style harmony.
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Why stop there. Let's go for broke and octotrack everything. I hear that can make your breathing sound thunderous.
 
jabps said:
For me - first and foremost give me simple. What Kyle does for example. Simple mic, no processing, no doubletracking, no production. In fact further IMO, if you are demoing amps...keep it to one cab so that is at least a static reference point. Also if you like a boost, give us the amp with and without. I kinda scratch my head when guys dial up the gain and then boost it and that's all you get. At the least show the difference with and without which again I think Kyle does a good job of that.

I don't think phone recordings are bad per se but again, what kind of phone is it, where is it sitting in the room etc...

Nothing against those that do a production but there are times when I frankly cannot tell the difference in the amps based on that person's personal preference for EQ settings and any processing they are doing or IR's etc... Maybe just record the amps flat and the let the amp speak for itself as much as possible.

In a perfect world we could have all three - simple mic sample, production sample and phone mic lol.

Good luck and let us know so we can check it out.
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Thanks for the comments, noted. I've come to realise that there's 20 ways of doing this so I'll just go with my gut. Some may like the approach, and almost definitely some will hate it. Just like everything else tone related I guess.

braintheory said:
Yeah let’s get back on track to serious matters like the human centipede mod you suggested on my amps
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Sounds like a cool mod. Will it give me Mayer tone?
 
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